ONCE again the West Indies have fallen at the hands of Pakistan and this time it came in the rain-affected One Day International at Kensington Oval yesterday, as Pakistan took an unassailable 3-0 lead in the Digicel home series.
After a late start due to some heavy morning showers, at least one can say there was a shining light for the home team yesterday and that was when the Kensington Oval field proved to be one of the best in the world as the drainage worked superbly.
The fans, despite their modest numbers, were also in full voice as they cheered their team from all parts of the ground in an effort to help lift them to a much need victory.
To hear a West Indian fan’s appeal for a leg before wicket from the Greenidge and Haynes Stand as well as the Party stand and then be upset that the decision did not fall their way when they clearly could not see the line, is always a sight to behold.
But 171 all out was never going to be enough to hold off Pakistan and the fans could only watch as the winning runs was a six hit in the Greenidge and Haynes stand by Wahab Riaz, who ended on 17 runs form 16 balls.
At the other end, man-of-the-match Misbah-ul-haq finished on 62 from 109 balls on a pitch that offered more bounce and had the visitors in trouble with the shorter ball.
Losing the toss and sent in to bat, the West Indies made good progress after losing the early wicket of Devon Smith when he fell once again to the offspin of Mohammad Hafeez.
Lendl Simmons and Darren Bravo were once again the main stay for the West Indies team as they moved the score from 6/1 to 92 in the match, which was reduced to 45 overs.
However, despite this the West Indies lost eight wickets for 53 runs to finish on a dismal 171 all out as there was no sign of a fightback and making it to the 200 mark.
With the small target of 172 the West Indies may have thought they were in with a chance as Ravi Rampaul ripped through the top order of the Pakistan batting taking two wickets in his first over and four in total as he bowled out his full quota in one spell.
He accounted for the wickets of both openers Mohammad Hafeez and Ahmed Shehzad as well as Asad Shafiq.
However, Misbah-ul-Haq steadied the Pakistan innings with an unbeaten 62 and 49/4 turned into 127/5.
Though there was another fightback at the end of the innings as West Indies took three wickets at the depth thanks to the leg spin of Devendra Bishoo, the target was never enough to hold off the visitors who ended on 177/7 with 29 balls to go
